Titanfall Stories - Cerebrus
by tsilver9
Summary: An invasion on an AMC moon is distrupted by the activation of a WMD that could threaten the existence of pilot-titan combat and change the war into one of mass destruction. Three ace pilots are caught up in this situation.
1. Chapter 1

Titanfall Stories

Cerebus

1- Mog Villaine

Mog Villaine had been here before. Not in the Stratosphere of Arkom IV, the IMC held moon of the gas giant Glorious, but here in the back of a ship, wondering if the next explosion of AA gunfire would be the last. It didn`t matter if he was a pilot, a superhuman soldier, the best of the best, the king and dominator of the battlefield if he got killed during insertion. It was something that all pilots had to deal with, especially during such incursions.

Mog checked his EPG rocket launcher as Ben and Smiley checked their standard issue R201s. He only knew them by the Heads Up Display in his pilot helmet, but didn`t talk to them much. The quick stats were encouraging though: Ben was close to being a veteran with nine battles under his belt and 3 pilot kills. Smiley was already a vet: She`d been in 15 skirmishes, and was already gathering some black ink on her stats: Missions with more clearance level than Mog had.

Not that Mog was new. No, quite the opposite in fact. He was a soldier of fortune so never hung around long enough in a faction to get promoted. As long as the IMC or Ares weren`t hiring him, the other factions were okay with his work. Mog was a professional canon-fodder: He had no interest in intrigue or espionage. He went around with a rocket launcher and piloted Vulturo - His Legion titan - so well that the fastest and best pilots could only regret in their last moments as he melted them with a barrage of his chain canons. And that only if they knew they were about to die in the first place.

"Okay pilots." Said a female voice over the coms, "It`s time to earn your keep. Secure those AA batteries and eliminate all pilots. It*s important that you give them hell. There`s other things at stake here!"

A rousing cheer and collective of acknowledgements all across the board. Mog didn`t even wait as the back of the ship opened. He jumped out It was a 50 meter drop, but nothing some well-timed jump jets wouldn`t solve.

Distant vague industrial buildings and tracer fire of AA batteries became the oily hot smell of machinery in action and the cacophony of gunfire and energy discharges. Small humanoid forms resolved into spectres - mechanical soldiers - and Mog spotted one figure that was moving way too fast and precise to be a mere spectre. A pilot.

He brought his gun to bear even as he landed and bullets strafed where his head used to be. He rolled, fired a shot and disintegrated five spectres that had come out to greet him. Flying over his explosion.

This was it. Hundreds of hours of combat both real and simulated millions of credits of investment in the best possible equipment, an obviously difficult and abnormal childhood and Spartan-conditioning was reduced to the instances of a second. One of them would die, the other would live.

Mog didn`t die.

Mog switched from his two hand grip to a single hand, stretching his EPG launcher out with his right hand and closing the gap between them that much, tracking the enemy pilot`s vector all the while.

He squeezed the trigger. There was blue. An explosion. Meat. One kill.

That made kill number 224

Mog slid through where the pilot used to be and kept on running. The fight went on.


	2. Chapter 2

**2 - Castian SILVEREYE**

Castian SILVEREYE looked through the scope of his Double-take, hidden amongst the shrubs. He wouldn`t be here long. Against normal grunts, being silent and still was effective. Against enemy pilots, it was very counter-intuitive. Especially when the battle was going so poorly.

The opposing Faction 5-4 was not known for actively attacking enemy territory, but it did happen. When it did, then you had to bring in the best of the best, because their pilots were the cream of the crop, and unpredictable. Not in the berserker manner of those under the employ of Ares and their crazy commander Bisk, but in the quirk some unique way of a faction that encouraged creativity and individuality. Pilots were already such skilled combatants and symbols of the battlefield that they had the luxury to focus on what colour their gun was or what props they wore on their gear, but the 5-4 had pilots who took the time to learn to add flips and turns to their parkour that shouldn`t make much tactical sense. They had pilots who equipped their standard issue Ronin with dual wielding pistols; they had pilots who even focused on melee combat alone.

Castian was always disgusted by such antics, as it was, he`d already indulged too much in such nonsense by having such a superfluous name. And he couldn`t help that the standard issue camouflage gear included a ghilli suit of sorts with antioptic wiring that hung around him like a coat. This was necessary, utilitarian equipment. Other than that, he was a soldier through and through. A soldier who could pilot a thousand tonne bi-pedal war machine through a neural link, perhaps, but a soldier nonetheless. He was a long way away from his forefathers but was still a proud member of the military family, which was why here on the frontier he was enlisted with the IMC and fighting the good fight against bleeding heart rebels who's only allegiance was anarchy.

Though as a soldier, he also had no interest in politics. He rarely had time to think of it. His time mostly consisted of how to outgun a pilot running at him with a weapon with higher recoil and velocity than his limited shots. So far, with 94 kills it seemed he was doing quite well indeed.

Arkom IV shouldn`t have been a battlefield by any sense of the term. It was just a moon, and if resources or strategic positioning was the reason for 5-4s`attack, then Castian doubted if their leader really understood the extent of the IMCs reach. They could very well abandon this long-conquered facility and focus on the more important facets of the battle. But there must`ve been something for them there, because the IMC H Castian out of his season to be deployed here and hope to score some hits.

"We are as much in the dark about you as to why the 5-4 has an interest in this place, but if they want to send in their best, then it`s an opportunity worth taking. Do your job, SILVEREYE, and you`ll be a very wealthy soldier."

Castian had accepted the mission immediately. Castian didn`t do this for the money, but money was useful. Being a pilot was not cheap. A single battery for Marilyn, his Northstar Titan cost 12 million credits. And that was just one small factor of a very expensive budget. Despite all his training and experience, sometimes the bigger wallet won the war. The only testament to a pilot`s devastating prowess was that they managed not to become extinct even after the advent of automated soldiers in the form of Spectres. For Castian, it was a sort of poetic justice.

He paid attention to the landing pilots. The 5-4 rained grunts and spectres of their own on the killing field of AA guns and troops. Castian kept an eye on the more agile figures. He squeezed off a shot and one lost its momentum - and head - falling down to crumple on the ground.

Two kills.


	3. Chapter 3

**3 - Mog Villaine**

Mog paid attention to the death markers of fellow pilots, even as he fought to avoid his own. Being a pilot was every bit a mental skill as a physical one - If you couldn't pay attention to the real time changes of the battlefield, then you risked suddenly running into a titan naked on the battle field, or, if you were so concerned, saving a comrade from death. Mog was more concerned with his own well-being than the others. It wasn't necessarily callous or selfish - pilots in the 5-4 agreed that so long as you could pull your own weight well enough then you made a great team. People who forced you to babysit them got you killed.

Mog was at 3 pilot kills - all with his EPG and he was sensing that his luck was getting less. He also didn't like the way the pilots were dropping around him.

Sniper.

Probably 1,000 metres away, from the looks of it. He immediately went into action, still not venturing into a titan. The AA guns would shred his shields, and the battlefield was still free of enemy titans and reapers. If you let yourself get boxed in by them it was always a bad idea. IT was an unwritten law in titan pilot battle that you only dropped titans when it was time to finish the fight.

Eliminating about 40 grunts and spectres together along his lightning fast trek across buildings and through windows, Mog closed the distance between him and the sniper.

He jumped out the window even as he heard the sniper discharge his weapon and kill another pilot who had thought of the exact same thing. Ignoring the corpse of his unfortunate fellow pilot, Mog brought his EPG to bear...

Even as the world turned white.


	4. Chapter 4

**4- Castian SILVEREYE**

The world turned white for Castian as well.

He squeezed off a shot, hoping that the EPG wielding pilot who was coming after him would be eliminated. He could only roll and activate his jump jets in hopes of escaping whatever this was. He felt like he was already dead.

But he wasn't. He cleared the ledge he had been perched on and landed on another building - but it wasn't. even a modicum of sure footing. The entire world was shaking, and the comms came in a panicked cacophony of chaos from both his side and the enemies.

The whole moonscape was bathed with white light, and finally Castian`s helmet compensated for the extreme light - A beam, no a tower of light burst out through the moon's surface. A super weapon? An explosion? It didn't matter.

If he wasn't. already dead, then he could keep it that way. Castian neurologically activated a titanfall.

Somewhere in space, an unmanned Titanmother carrier ship cycled his titan and let it drop through the atmosphere. Normally a pilot had their titan on their factions`battle carrier. Castian was rich enough to afford a smaller one of his own. It was perfect for personalized drops.

In the five seconds waiting time, Castian launched himself in the air to avoid the rocket of the pilot who was after him - the madman didn't seem to care about the fact that the moon had just been blasted with something catastrophic.

He was impressed.

Castian activated his active camouflage to throw off his enemies` target a little and emptied the last two shots of his rifle at the pilot. In true 5-4 fashion the man activated his jump jets and moved impossibly out of the way. Spinning and firing off an EPG round at the same time. Castian quick-drew his pistol and shot the incoming blue rocket head on, exploding it before it hit him.

He boosted backwards and landed.

... Then he jumped...

... Into the waiting open cockpit of his North Star


	5. Chapter 5

**5 - Mog Villaine**

He was dead.

At least, that's what he thought, until his own titan landed behind him. His ears popped as the North Star fired in his face, and instead of vanishing in the face of the rail gun, he saw it impact upon Vulturo - his Legion's - shield. The titan grabbed him after blocking the shot and stuffed him in the cockpit, even as the enemy northstar loaded another shot.

The crazy bastard was still up for a fight even though the moon was going to blow.

Mog indulged him.

There was no chance that the Northstar could defeat him in a war of attrition, which was why it immediately took to the skies and launched a cluster bomb, even as it fired off another railgun shot that forced Mog to be on the defensive: Weak or not, that rifle could devastate any titan no matter how heavy it was on the armour department.

And so, they battled


	6. Chapter 6

6 - IMC and 6-4

Northstar attacked Legion, what should've been a one sided massacre became a death dance of unprecedented intricacy. The two battling mechs ignored the exploding moon, totally focused on finishing off their opponent, because when two equally excellent pilots faced off against eachother, there was never room for anything else.

But even for the veterans, there was a limit to how much they could pull off, especially when the very ground upon which they were fighting was cratering to dust.

Whatever blast was tearing through the moon had now reached critical mass: They had to abort the mission. Their controllers said as much, flooding the radio comms with desperate calls for retreat and codes for search and rescue teams to take as many survivors as they could with them.

The 6-4 sometimes sent in Capture and Interrogate teams to capture unwary pilots during ex-filtration, but even this was too much of a luxury with the exploding moon.

In moments, the majority of the forces had either died or evacuated. Only a handful of Titanmothers and disabled craft floated in zero gravity, in the vicinity of the tower of light.


	7. Chapter 7

**7 - Mog Villaine and Castian SILVEREYE**

Castian SILVEREYE took advantage of his Northstar`s extensive flight capabilities to stray a little away from the beam - it seemed to stretch to infinity in both directions, continuously increasing in intensity. Nothing would've been alive within thousands of cubic kilometres if it was a spherical explosion.

As it was the metrics of his Northstar`s targeting scope estimated that the beam stretched for hundreds of thousands of kilometres in either direction from its emergence point, something the level headed pilot immediately dismissed as an interference-caused malfunction.

Mog Villaine floated helplessly, but his titan was in otherwise great shape. Calling in his titanmother to collect him and extract him from there, he also stared at the long beam of blue fire that lanced through the cosmos, he could not help but think it was beautiful.


	8. Chapter 8

**8 - General Marder**

On board the ARES flagship Ozymandias, General Marder watched all of this with less of a surprised eye. Infact the expression on his cold face was musing satisfaction. He spoke to a shadowy figure on his ships` HUD whose name tag identified him as Spidermerchant.

"The auction takes place in 36 hours."

"We will be ready." Replied Marder.

The communication link shut off, and the commander barked some orders,

"Warp out. Leave them wondering what happened here, and terrified about who possesses this power... A taste of what is to come."

Acknowledging the orders, the flagship jumped out of that sector.

Over time, the beam of light faded away, leaving only shattered debris in the wake of what used to be the moon Arkom IV.


End file.
